To help take the stress out of your trip to New Orleans, here are our top tourist travel tips. Through first hand visits to New Orleans we have learned a a few things that you just need to know a head of time. You can thank us later.

1. Planning & Dividing Your Time: Of course everyone knows about French Quarter and it should be the focus of your time, but there is a lot more to see in New Orleans. Correctly planning out your time will help visit hidden gems and reduces the burn out effect that non-stop Bourbon Street drink can have. If you are in town for a few days we even came up with some great day trips you can visit.

2. What are New Orleans’ Signature Drinks: We often get asked what do I need to make sure to drink on Bourbon Street. It all starts with New Orleans’ official drink the Sazerac which is made with rye whiskey and bitters. We like to get ours at the The Carousel Bar. Daiquiris are the biggest must as New Orleans does them right with walk out shop and even drive throughs. The drink became popular as pirates frequented early day New Orleans and the lime was a way to prevent scurvy. You are almost required to get a Hand Grenade from Tropic Isle which is served is a super tall plastic tube. They are also famous for the Shark Attack where there bar sirens go off before a grenadine filled rubber shark is splashed into your cup.Crawdad Bloody Mary from Daisey Dukes. A Hurricane from Pat O’Brien’s. The Vieux Carré is another signature drink made with whiskey, Cognac, and bitters. The official drink of Mardi Gras is Ojen from Spain but is extremely hard to come by as it hasn’t been produced forever. We also suggest a purple frozen Voodoo Blend from Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop and Absinthe from the Old Absinthe House. The Absinthe House Frappé is a local variation mixed with soda water and anisette. Antonie’s Annex quickly became the place for New Orleans locals to get their Bourbon Whiskey and Black Coffee drink called Café Brûlot. Variations of the drink were vast and in the 1890s owner Jules Alciatore created a flaming concoction of coffee, brandy, and spices he called Café Brûlot Diabolique. This new concoction became a huge hit and even more popular during Prohibition as a great way to disguise alcohol.

French Quarter or simply the Quarter is often called Vieux Carré pronounced Vue Ca-ray

4. Where Can I Park My Car?: Good Luck! We mean that in the nicest way as you’ll quickly find out that parking is very hard to come by the closer you are to the French Quarter. Even if you have a hotel almost none provide parking and you will have to either valet or use the parking garage at a tune of $25-40 a night. It is super expensive, but there are two tricks to help. The first is knowing that most of the parking meters stop on Saturday night and don’t start again until Monday morning so you can sometimes find free street parking for part of the weekend. The second tip is to park your car at the Harrahs Casino for free. To cash in on this you will need to go inside and gamble for 30 minutes using their free club card and you’ll get a 24 hour free parking voucher for the casino lot.